The Buyt Desk
The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us the importance of having health insurance coverage. Given the increasing cost of hospitalisation and treatment could burn a hole in your pocket. On the other hand, if you have a good health cover it can rescue you from a financial shock. But before you finalize the kind of health insurance that you should buy you must know the various types of health insurance that exists. There are insurance that can give you individual cover but if you want a health cover just not for yourself but for your family as well then a family floater is what you need. If you want a critical illness cover or want insurance that can safeguard you from steep hospital bills then there are specific insurance that will fulfil your need.
Let’s have a look at various kinds of insurance-
Individual Health Insurance Plan
This is most popular amongst people with zero dependents on them. These policies could be brought in individual names and the premium is based on the age and total sum assured that you want to opt for. These policies reimburse the expense incurred up to the size of the cover. You will be eligible for the reimbursement only if you are hospitalised for more than 24 hours. Depending upon the sum assured the individual insurance plan can cover room rent, doctor’s fee, cost of test or surgery. Pre and post hospitalisation could also be covered in these plans.
Family floater plans
It is exactly the same as the individual plan except that you can take health cover for the entire family. Benefits such as the room rent, physicians fee and hospitalisation cost will be covered.
Depending upon the sum assured your premium may vary. The premium of health cover is cheaper than the individual plan as you will be buying a cover for the entire family. Instead of buying a separate insurance cover for each family member, you buy a consolidated health cover for all the members of the family. The entire cover floats among the family member which means that any family member can use the money if he/she falls sick. For example, if you purchase a Rs 15 lakh family floater plan for a family of three, then this amount can be utilised singularly by any family member up to the sum insured.
Critical illness plans
As the name suggests, this is an illness-specific insurance plan. A critical illness covers the cost of treatment and recovery expenses for specific life-threatening diseases such as cancer, heart stroke, paralysis or kidney failure. Most insurers cover as many as 36 specific illnesses in a critical illness plan. This cover gives you an extra layer of protection to your existing health insurance.
Hospital cash plans
A hospital cash plan helps you to tackle hefty hospitalisation bills. In these plans, the insurer pays a daily fixed amount when the policyholder gets hospitalised. This cash plan ensures that apart from treatment cost, room rent and doctor fees the policyholder gets a daily allowance if he/she is admitted to the hospital. A daily hospital cash plan would determine the coverage based on the daily allowance chosen under the plan. The range of daily cash available is from Rs 500 to Rs 3000.
